Agricultural Mechanizasion as a Solution to Food Insecurity in Africa Essay

Achieving fare security in its totality continues to be a challenge for ever change magnitude nation of Africa. A approaches are engaged in growth countries but with less success due to a number of factors . this paper examines the ca employments of intellectual nourishment for thought hazard in African. Scanning by dint of researchers transactions ,it was noted that everyplace seventy percent of the diet uncertain existence in africa live in the unsophisticated areas. The paper thence recomm destructions that, if the ever increasing population of the african countries is to be fed, then mechanisation of all outlandish operations should be embrace.In conclusion, efforts to words the outgrowth of the country communities in Africa should be growthd. Key words agriculture, mechanisation, diet security, Africa, folksy development. Introduction Agriculture is the practices of cultivating the soil and raising livestock to produce form and animals useful to humans and sometimes animals S. N, Asogwu and O. A Asogwu,2007, Agriculture is an important parentage in Nigeria with over 7o% of her population depending on it directly for livelihood.It provides the bulk of employment, income and food for the rapidly growing population as well as proviso raw materials for agro-based industries. World current agricultural production as an average out growth rate of 1. 8% as compared to the 3% in the mid-sixties and therefore at a lesser pace than the demographic growth. The founding bank has shown that in sub-saharan Africa (to which Nigeria be desires)the annual food ontogeny ineluctably to reach 4%, i. e. more than double the current figure in order to achieve food security.She suggested that this can be reached through a significant progress in gear up and animal breeding that plays a key role in the development of the agricultural sector as well as a significant impact using take over farm mechanization Pawlat et al , 2002. Due to number of fa ctors, which include upgrade population, increasing pressure on land resources, natural and man-make disasters such(prenominal) as drought, desertification, soil erosion and degradation (Raoult-Wack and Bricas, 001), the problem of sustainable agricultural production in Nigeria has assumed greater richness than ever before. inelegant development involves tether approaches namely bio- chemical, socio-economic, and engineering known as the three of technologies (Mrema and Odigboh, 1993). The bio-chemical approach includes the development of improved animal and plant species, animal and plant nutrients (fertilizer and feed) and plant and animal protection (veterinary drugs, pesticides and herbicides).The socio-economic approach includes financial packages and management programmes (economic, business organisation management, accounting, sociology, extension services, agricultural machines and equipment (be they human, animal or mechanically powered) for production and stick out harvest governing bodys handling and storage systems and farm structures, erosion control measures, pee resources development as well as irrigation and drainage structures, meteorological systems, and the technologies for optimally utilizing the above and their proper and economic use and management. Ani and Onwuala, 2002 Ampratwum et al, 2004 Onwuala and Pawa, 2004).Agricultural mechanization implies the use of different power sources and improved farm tools and equipment, with a view to knock down drudgery of the human beings and draught animals, enhance the cropping intensity, precision and seasonableness of capacity of utilization of various crop inputs and reduce the losses at assorted stages of crop production. The end objective of farm mechanization is to enhance the boilers suit productivity and production with the lowest cost of production.The contribution of agricultural mechanization has been well recognized in enhancing the production together with irrigation, bi ological and chemical inputs of high yielding seed varieties, fertilizers, pesticides and mechanical energy. Different researchers have reason that farm mechanization enhances the production and productivity of different crops due to timeliness of operation, better quality of operations and precision in the application of the inputs. fit in to NCAER (1980) survey covering 815 farming households in 85 vil lock awayes, the increase was 72 percent in the casing of sorghum, and 7 percent in the case of cotton as compared to traditional bullock farms. ITES, Madras (1975) found that the productivity increase on tractor owning and hiring farm ranged between 4. 1 and 54. 8 percent. The percent increase was comparatively low on custom hiring farms as compared to tractor-owning farms due to high level of inputs and better control on timeliness of operations. These productivity increases, thus, were attributed to higher(prenominal)(prenominal) doses of fertilizer, irrigation and mechanizatio n.Degree of mechanization is the ration of machine or technological work input to total work input (machine plus manual) into agricultural production. The importance of food security to any nation cannot be over emphasized. The go away of food security became prominent in the 1970s and had been given commodious attention since then. The World pabulum Programme Report in 1979 imageualized food security, equating it with an assurance of supplies and a balanced supply-demand situation of staple foods in the international market.The report excessively emphasized that increasing food production in the developing countries is a panacea to food security. The concept of food security proposes that food is operable, accessible and affordable, when and where needed in suitable quantity and that this state of affair will continue and be keep up (Agboola, P. O. , 2002). It is a situation in which sufficient food us available at all times in the right quantity and quality, at affordable process.To accomplish this, we must(prenominal) have a production system that produces enough food in the short run, sustainable in the long run and does not place undue risks on agricultural producers and must respond rapidly to disruptions in the food supply due to complaint epidemics, natural disasters, civil disturbances, environmental imbalances and other realise (Agboola P. O. 2002). With these objectives in mind, various efforts at the international, national and local levels had been put in place at adept point in time or another to bring forward agricultural production to make food available to the teaming population and the ever-increasing land population.The human race population. The world population explosion witnessed as at the end of 1999, further increased the fear of those concerned about world food security. During this period, the global population exceeded 6 billion. Leisinger, (2002), stated that never before in human history had the population of the ear th been as great as it is today, and never before had it grown so rapidly within one century. He stated further that the doubling of world population over the foregone 40years had put enormous pressure on the natural systems that deport all life on Earth.This pressure on natural resources also increased the burden of assuring food security for the entire worlds people international Food Policy Research bring in (IFPRI, 2001) stated in one of her reports, that about 73 millions people would be added to worlds population every year between 1995 and 2010 increasing it by 32 percent to reach 7. 5 billion. However, much of this population growth is expected to occur in the developing world. If this prediction is to go by, then the food security situation of the developing world require constant assessment via empirical research.Joachim et depal (2004), wrote that these was a strong direct blood between agricultural productivity, hunger and penury. He stated further that three quart er of the worlds poor people lived in rural areas and do their living from agriculture. He therefore, concluded that the higher the analogy of the rural population that obtained its benefits from subsistence farming (without the benefit of pro poor technologies and access to markets) the higher the incidence of food insecurity.Challenges to Food Security in Africa The root cause of food insecurity in developing countries is the inability of people to pass access to food due to poverty. While the rest of the world has made significant progress towards poverty alleviation, Africa, in particular sub-Saharan Africa, continues to lag behind. Projections show that there will be an increase in this temperament unless preventive measures are taken.Many factors have contributed to this tendency including the high prevalence of HIV/AID civil war, strive and poor governance everyday drought and famine and agricultural dependency on the climate and environment. Food security on the conti nent has worsened since 1970 and the proportion of the malnourished population has remained within the 33 and 35 percent range in Sub-Saharan Africa. The prevalence of malnutrition within the continent varies by region. It is lowest in Union Africa (4 percent) and highest in Central Africa (40 percent)Over seventy percent of the food unassured population in Africa lives in the rural areas. Figure 1 shows the diffusion of food insecurity in Africa. Ironically, smallholder farmers, the producers of over 90 percent of the continents food supply, make up the majority (50 percent) of this population. The rest of the food insecure population consists of the landless poor in rural areas (30 percent) and the urban poor. Throughout the developing world, agriculture accounts for around 9 percent of the gross domestic product and more than half of total employment.In countries where more than 34 percent of the population is undernourished, agriculture represents 30 percent of GDP and nearly 70 percent of population relies on agriculture for their livelihood. This fact has in the past been used in support of the argument as to why developing countries should move away from agriculture and invest in technology. Because over 70 percent of the poor live in rural areas, where also the largest proportion of the food insecure live, it is evident that we cannot significantly and sustainably reduce food insecurity without transforming the living conditions in these areas.The key lies in increasing the agricultural profitability of smallholder farmers and creating rural off-farm employment opportunities. The objective of this paper is to h8ighlight the challenges to food security in Africa while providing alternative solutions to the problem that would not only allow for poverty alleviation but also wealth creation. While the focus of this paper is in alleviating food insecurity in the rural areas, effort has been made to address the plight of the urban poor.